Left Behind
by Alison Burns
Summary: This is how the world ends. Not with a bang but with a whimper. The blue police box has been there in the forest for almost as long as Rose can remember. It just appeared one day, out of nowhere, and it never left.
1. a little blue police box

Left Behind

**A/N high everyone so I'm really nervous about letting you all see this but also really excited because I hope you like it this is my first Doctor Who story as I only recently started watching the show but I love it so much and I'm so inspired also I've only gotten to watch to the end of season 4 so if anything seems really off please let me know and I'll be more than happy to fix it. **

**I should mention that Doctor who obviously doesn't belong to me *cries* and also that this idea originally came to me because of a picture of the Tardis sitting against a tree in the forest looking in quite a state of disrepair that was/is going around Tumblr. **

**Alright Allons-y!**

_This is the way the world ends_

_This is the way the world ends_

_This is the way the world ends_

_Not with a bang but a whimper._

The first time she noticed the blue box leaning against the tree she was eight years old. She'd heard screeching fill the forest behind the house and had run out the open back door while her mother was busy in the living room. It had simply been sitting there seeming so innocent. Just minding its own business leaning up against the side of a tree where it certainly hadn't been before.

It had been so shiny, so new, then. She'd just stared at it in wonder as the sun reflected off it and the blue paint sparkled. She'd reached out for the door wanting to feel it her fingers only inches away from the wood.

"Rose?"

Her mother had called out to her and she's snatched her hand back. This was hers, she'd found it and she didn't want to share not with anyone. She hesitated a moment drinking it in with child like wonder not ever wanting to leave.

'Rose.' She jumped. Something had spoken her name but not out loud in the back of her mind and it rung there like she'd been shouted at. She glared at the structure suspiciously. Police boxes couldn't talk could they? They couldn't shout your name they were just wood. That was impossible.

This was, of course, before she discovered this particular blue police box could do a great many impossible things.

"Rose!" Her mother had called again and she'd forced herself to turn away. She didn't forget, though, and when her mother asked if she wanted a bedtime story she asked if she knew any about blue police boxes that could talk. Poor Jackie Tyler looked at her daughter like she'd lost her mind.

She went back the next day half expecting the blue box wouldn't be there any longer. That while she was forced to brush her teeth and put on her pajamas and somehow sleep it would have wandered off back to wherever it had come from.

But it was still there, just the same as it had been the day before. And it was still there the next day and the next day and the day after that. She spent hours most afternoons all on her own investigating and imagining. She had such ideas and that police box held such promise it could be anything, she could go anywhere. She liked to pretend it was her spaceship, taking her on adventures in far off, impossible worlds. When she started with that it felt so real that she'd lose track of time and Jackie would have to come and forcefully drag her inside the house for dinner.

It never spoke to her again, and try as she might the doors stayed shut.

Time passed, as it always does, and the box stayed where it was but not how it was. Eventually the paint started to peel and the rain and wind rotted a few of the smaller boards. Moss and ivy and dirt worked to make it impossible to know the precise shade of blue it might once have been and eventually even the little girl forgot.

After a while she wasn't little any longer or a girl. She grew and made her way through school and made friends and got a job and thought she fell in love but in truth hadn't the faintest idea what the word actually meant. She kept visiting but not nearly as often, and not for nearly as long. Most nights by then the little blue police box was all on its own. No longer privy to the company of a lonely girl and all of her deepest secrets, all her fears. But it didn't mind. Was it possible for a police box to mind? No, even when Rose Tyler stopped visiting all together it kept on, strong and unyielding in its continued existence. The police box didn't need anything or anyone. It would endure, alone.

A little while after Rose turned nineteen she went back. She wasn't sure what made her but she found herself sitting on the old log next to it like she hadn't done in a long, long while.

"Hey." She felt silly talking to it but somehow it also felt right. She crossed her legs, uncrossed them, got up and ran a hand along the degraded, peeling paint in that familiar way she had done so often. A presence hummed in the back of her mind in a way that hadn't happened since the very first day she'd found it and she wrenched her hand back.

It stopped.

She placed her hand back on the door and felt it return. 'Try again Rose Tyler. Discover the truth.' The voice was weak, soft and so quiet in the back of her mind it was like being caressed by an angel that could leave you at any moment.

On instinct she placed her hands on the lock and the door swung open.

Inside was its very own world. The police box was somehow, impossibly, bigger on the inside then it was on the outside. Much bigger. Her mouth fell open and for a moment she stayed frozen in shock. Then, before she could talk herself out of it, she stepped over the threshold and doing that felt so natural, so right, she had to grin. Wasn't this what she had always wanted? Hadn't she always wanted to see what was inside?

She left the door open for the light and started to explore. In the middle of the room was some kind of futuristic technology. It looked like some kind of control panel with a clear cylinder coming out of it that attached to the ceiling. Oh my goodness this was all so impossible. She came closer, ran her finger along one of the many levers she could see. Everything was covered in dust and for a reason she couldn't understand that made her heart ache. It wasn't meant to be this way, it wasn't right.

The Doctor would never let this happen.

She doubled over in pain and hit the floor as the visions overwhelmed her. A man with close cropped dark hair and hard eyes grabbing her hand and telling her to run. Living plastic the earth exploding, burning up before her eyes. Something called a Dalek. Fear, such fear, because the Doctor had sent her away looking into the time vortex bad wolf her lips on his everything changing the Doctor morphing completely different and yet the same and a word for it. Regeneration. Deadly spinning Christmas trees tea the Doctor losing a hand, growing it back, cybermen and a parallel world oh god no that parallel world trapped there so far from the Doctor this couldn't be happening no no no finding her way back to him and being left there, again, with the Doctor who was not the Doctor so many things so much pain so many goodbyes and also so much love. More visions but later the Doctor having regenerated, again, that unruly mop of hair always in his eyes almost like a child but still her Doctor, always her Doctor. Desperation, determination, always so lonely pushing her away always the danger so much danger so much weight on his shoulders. _I'm come back for you. It's only temporary but I've got to do this I have to save them. _Screaming at him afraid of the lies and his definition of temporary and then the heat, heat and searing pain and her mind and her memories and the Doctor oh god no Doctor please don't not like Donna anything but that and then everything fading to black as time ran itself backwards and the Doctor faced it all alone, as he always did, even though she swore he would never have to again.

She came back to herself in a start sprawled on the floor of the police box.

The TARDIS.

She pushed herself to her knees with shaking arms and stopped there for a moment breathing heavily fists clenched eyes closed. She couldn't open them, couldn't do that because it meant accepting everything.

Accepting that the Doctor had left her behind again.

Around her the TARDIS sputtered and groaned to life no doubt reacting to the part of her that it had connected with and would always be connected to. It beeped. Once, twice, three times then several times more in quick succession and she forced herself to open her eyes and find her feet.

A video message was flashed on the screen in front of her and with a kind of numbness she reached forward and hit play. An image of the Doctor sputtered to life, started moving.

"Rose. Rose alright I haven't got much time but listen." She squeezed her eyes shut again at the wave of pain that voice brought. "What I'm about to do is crazy. It breaks all the rules, it's insane and it might get me killed but none of that matters." He paused. "What I really care about is that it's going to take you away from me." There was that look in his eyes she'd grown to know so well. The look that said he was in more pain then he could ever show and knew more was coming. He seemed to be looking right at her. "I'm not sure how much you'll remember when you get this message, and I'm sorry it couldn't be earlier. I couldn't risk you seeing it before the day we would have met otherwise you have no idea the holes we would have ripped in time and space. Rose you need to know that I did everything I could to try and find you, to get back to you, but if you're getting this message-if it's been that long-" He stopped and whirled around as someone banged on the door of the TARDIS. "Then things aren't looking good for me and I need you to promise one thing just one." The banging came again, louder and more insistent. She heard something crack and the fear in his eyes was like a punch to the stomach. "I said it before. Rose please don't wait for me. Don't come looking for me, don't even think about me not for a moment. Just have a great life, have it for me." There was a crash and the video faded to static.

She stayed frozen where she was, her whole body shaking as the tears she promised herself she wouldn't shed fell down her cheeks.

"Oh Doctor, where are you?"

**A/N so what did you think? Should I continue or leave it as a one shot? Did you like it or hate it? Let me know! Thanks for reading!**


	2. Geronimo or is that Allons-y?

_**Hi everyone! I had a couple people say they wanted this continued so here it goes I have so many ideas and am so excited! I avoided putting this up until now even though it was basically ready because in the meantime I finished season 5 and part of season 6 and now have a better feel for Matt's Doctor which I felt was really important. It also gave me more time to decide where to take this.**_

_**Disclaimer: if I owned Doctor Who…nope you know what I don't even want to torture myself with those thoughts but hey good on BBC what would we do without them huh? Except Steven Moffat…that man's the devil if there ever was one…(but hey we love him anyway don't we?)**_

_**Allons-y! Come along. Also, does anyone have a fez I could borrow? Fezes are cool.**_

Rose stayed in the TARDIS a long time. She almost couldn't bear to leave, because in a way being there was like being with him. The Doctor was part of the TARDIS and the TARDIS was part of the Doctor there was no getting around that.

Which only made everything worse, because the TARDIS was dying. She could feel it like a weight stuck deep down inside her, in the part of her that would always be Bad Wolf. She could only remember one other time that the TARDIS had given her that feeling, and that was only after she'd entered Donna's parallel world where the Doctor-

The Doctor had died.

That single thought threatened to send her spiraling into a place so dark and deep she would never find her way out again. The Doctor couldn't be dead, could he? But why else would he have left the TARDIS alone for so long? Why else would the TARDIS be dying?

She could remember now, remember everything. The fabric holding the universes, the parallel worlds, separate had started to disintegrate again. Their transporters had started working and that had been such a blessing and such a curse all at once because she knew she had to find the Doctor, she knew she had to help.

Yet she was finally, in all the ways that mattered, content. You never truly got over the Doctor trampling all over your life but she had her own Doctor and, in some ways, he was better. This Doctor wouldn't run off and leave her like the other one had. He wouldn't regenerate into someone she barely knew. No this Doctor only had one life, and he wanted to spend it with her.

She felt as if she'd been stabbed in the chest. The Doctor had talked about turning time back. To before he'd met her, before any of it. Did that mean her Doctor who wasn't the Doctor but was never even existed? She clenched her fists. No the Doctor couldn't be dead because he still had far too much to fix. He would put things right, he had to.

Then again did she really know if he would? She'd spent so long trying to find her way back to him and when she finally did he wasn't the man she'd left. He'd regenerated again, and who he'd become was in just about every way unrecognizable. He felt like a stranger walking around with her Doctor's memories. Even after he'd regenerated the first time with her, even after he'd taken on the energy of the time vortex, it hadn't felt like this. This time the Doctor had moved on with his life. He'd found new companions and explored the universe for years without her. There was something about a woman named River Song and he'd taken to calling the TARDIS sexy and wearing ridiculous bowties (There had, apparently, been a fez at one point. She was almost infinitely glad she'd missed that). She knew that she'd always been second. Everything always came second to the TARDIS and it always would, you just had to accept that when you travelled with the Doctor.

Now though, she feared she'd fallen farther down the list.

The worst moment had come right when she'd started to think that maybe things weren't so bad. Yes they were being chased and yes they were running for their lives and yes everything was falling to pieces around them but that's what the universe always did and they were fixing it together, like they always had. They'd almost made it to the TARDIS when the ground in front of them had given way and nearly sent her tumbling. They'd locked eyes and the Doctor had drawn her close.

'We have to jump _can_ you do it?'

She'd smirked at him.

'What do you think?'

'Well I don't know that's why I'm asking!'

She'd grown serious. 'Only one way to find out.'

'Right, on the count of three then.' They'd stepped back a couple of paces for a running start. He'd smiled at her reassuringly and in that moment he'd looked so much like her Doctor that she nearly felt her heart break. '1' Rose shifted her weight to the balls of her feet. '2' her heart was thumping thump thumping loud in her chest. Maybe to help her beat the nerves, or maybe just because he could, he'd said it. 'Geronimo, huh Rose Tyler?' He'd rubbed his hands together in a mix of nervous-excited anticipation. Rose had gone cold inside as she broke eye contact. Finally she found her voice, even if it shook a little.

'Allons-y, Doctor.'

When they were both safely back in the TARDIS neither of them spoke, not for a long while.

She ran a hand along the screen that was nothing but static now and the TARDIS whined at her touch. This was not how things were meant to be. There was no way she would stand back and do nothing. Whether he could fix things or not, she was going to find him if she had to rip apart the universe to do it. He wasn't her Doctor but he was The Doctor, and she couldn't forget that.

_** Thanks for reading! So sorry this was a little shorter then chapter 1 but I felt like it was a good place to end it and also I promise next chapter the action will really start to heat up. Any guesses at to who'll be making an appearance? It might not be who you think…**_


	3. of forgetting, and remembering

_**Well not much to say except here is the next chapter hope you all like it. Enjoy! **_

_**DISCLAIMER: if I owned Doctor who every episode would be like the 50**__**th**__** anniversary is going to be. I miss Rose and Martha and Donna and Jack and ten and gahhhh. Okay alright sorry I'll stop. Off we go.**_

Rose's mouth was dry and she kept swallowing extra hard as the phone to her ear rang and rang. At first she'd thought she didn't know but then, as she searched through all the memories that had sprung up in the TARDIS she found it, a phone number to match a face and a mass of memories. She was half waiting for someone to answer half desperately hoping they wouldn't.

"Mickey Smith." She bit her lip hard, found her voice had deserted her. Here was this boy, this boy she knew as well as she knew the back of her own hand, but it was more than possible-probable even-that he didn't know her at all. "Hello? Is someone there?" She licks her lips. "Listen, if this is someone's idea of a joke–"

"Mickey. Mickey it's me, Rose." There was shuffling on the other end of the line.

"Sorry, who? Do I know a Rose?"

"Of course you do. Rose Tyler we used to – I was–" she swallowed struggling against the lump in her throat. "Never mind. Sorry I think I've got the wrong number." She hung up, just sat staring at the receiver in her hand as she fought against the tears that were threatening to come. She clutched the phone tighter and punched in the next number, reading this one off the screen of the laptop sitting in front of her.

"Martha Jones?"

"Yes." She sounded out of breath like she'd been running somewhere. "Listen I'm sorry but who is this? I don't have a lot of time I'm late meeting the others and I'll be entering the hospital soon I can't use my cellphone there."

"Do you remember?" Rose's voice was soft. "Do you remember the sound of it squealing? Do you remember what a terrible parker he was? Always with the rough landings and the bumping into things. Do you remember how he touched your life and nothing was ever the same again?"

"Sorry?"

"Martha Jones do you remember the TARDIS?"

"Who are you?"

"Do you remember?" Silence.

"You're scaring me leave me alone!" Rose pressed the end button and threw the phone against the wall, trembling as it crashed to the floor. He'd really done it. He'd turned it all the way back to before he'd ever met her, and they'd all forgotten. She'd have to fix this on her own.

She was reaching for the phone when another thought hit her. Maybe, just maybe, that wasn't true. Maybe she'd been going about this all wrong. She'd been trying to contact the wrong people. If the Doctor ha d never met her then he'd never met Mickey or Martha or Donna or Jack. Who she needed was someone who'd touched his life even earlier, someone with a big heart and a brilliant metal dog. She brought up Google and entered the name into at the back of her mind.

Sara Jane.

She dug until she found it. A cellphone number listed to a Sara Jane with a young son who lived close to London. She dialed the number and held the phone to her ear. It rang once, twice, three times, then–

"Sara Jane speaking."

"Sara, I think I've got some information about an old friend of yours." There was a pause.

"Who is this?"

"You should know me, but you don't."

"I don't understand who are you? What friend?"

"Sara Jane. How long has it been since you've seen the Doctor?" There was a sharp intake of breath on the other end of the line.

"How do you know about him?"

"Just answer the question."

"I haven't seen him since – not since–" Her voice cracked. "Not since he left me for the time war. I thought he died and why am I telling you this!"

"What if I said the Doctor was still alive? What if I said he was in trouble and we're the only ones who can help him because we're the only ones who remember him?"

"Then I would say I've still got no idea what you're talking about." She sighed. "But it sounds like the kind of thing he would manage to get himself into and if he's still alive, if the Doctor needs me–" She took a deep, shuttering breath in. "What do I have to do?"

"Meet with me. I'm going to take the train up I won't be long. There's still a coffee shop by your place isn't there?"

"Yes. How did you know?"

"Oh Sara Jane, I know a great many things I probably shouldn't. Meet me there in an hour." She hung up the phone and let herself smile. It looked like maybe, just maybe, she wouldn't have to do this all on her own after all.

_And what if you're wrong? What if you lied to her and the Doctor really is dead? What if you're pulling her into a wild goose chase? Getting her hopes up for nothing. _

She pushed the thought away. If she had faith in one thing, just one, it was the Doctor's ability to survive. He'd been doing it for over eleven hundred years, why should now be any different? No. Somewhere, out there, someway, somehow, the Doctor was alive. And he needed them.

XXX

Well outside of London in a small town surrounded by countryside and decidedly lacking a nuclear power plant or much of anything, really, besides a closed post office a young man was sitting in a coffee shop of his own. He was awaiting the arrival of a couple of friends, having decided to get there early, and as his foot tap tapped on the floor his hand found the small, circular, silver watch attached to a chain in his pocket and he ran his hand along the crevasses there as he'd been doing a lot of late. The thing was nothing more than a family heirloom, it didn't even work, but somehow he felt better when the thing was near.

"Hey you!" Startled the man dropped the watch back into his pocket and forgot about it. Standing before him was a redhead her long fiery hair falling in curls around her shoulders. Beside her was a man with dirty blonde hair and a familiar, bemused, expression on his face. He felt his heart leap with a mixture of happiness and sorrow so intense it hurt. He never understood why he always felt that way when he saw the two of them but he did.

Every time.

_**Thanks for reading let me know what you think!**_


	4. sing me a Melody

**_Thanks to everyone that's reviewed or alerted I am so thankful to all of you! I'm loving writing this story and have a feeling it's going to get pretty long so I hope you all decide to stick it out with me! _**

Rose arrived at the coffee shop a few minutes early and ordered a coffee. When she got it she chose a table in the corner of the shop, somewhere they wouldn't be overheard. Then she waited, taking impatient sips of her drink and feeling it scald the inside of her mouth.

She didn't have to wait long. Sara Jane arrived soon after and Rose waived her over. Something like nervous anticipation was twisting her stomach into knots. Sara Jane sat down across from her.

"Are you the one who called me?" She kept her voice low. Rose smiled.

"It's good to see you again." Sara Jane looked at her with something like confusion.

"I don't know you."

"But I know you. And in another version of reality, the proper version, you know me too." Sara Jane looked vaguely uncomfortable.

"I travelled with him. Well, I would have done. I'd be doing it right now-" She swallowed. "It's complicated."

"So you know him, but not in this version of time? It still doesn't explain how you remember him." Rose laughed.

"That's another very, very complicated story. Basically, in short, I looked into the time vortex at the heart of the TARDIS. The Doctor took the energy out of me and into himself but part of it remained, it always will. Simply rewriting time isn't nearly careful enough to change that. Then when I finally got into the TARDIS and the part of me that was still connected with it helped me remember."

"Is that what he did? Rewrote time?" Sara Jane's eyes widened. "You've got the TARDIS!" Rose nodded.

"It's been sitting in my backyard almost all my life, I just didn't know what it was." All the colour drained from Sara Jane's face.

"The Doctor would never just leave the TARDIS, not unless-" Rose cut her off.

"There is one other way. If the Doctor was being hunted, if he wanted to disappear, what would he do?"

"He'd hide." Sara Jane started. "But he's a time lord how's he supposed to do that?"

"Unless he wasn't a time lord any longer."

Sara Jane snapped her fingers. "When I travelled with him he had this thing-"

"A fob watch, yeah. He said it would turn him human." Rose frowned. "So human he'd forget everything, the perfect disguise."

"It would explain why the TARDIS has been in your backyard so long. He doesn't even know it exists." The light dimmed from Sara Jane's eyes. "Or maybe, maybe he's just dead. Maybe this time he just didn't run fast enough-"

"No! The Doctor always finds a way, always." Rose couldn't help the edge of panic in her voice. Sara Jane nodded, but didn't look convinced. There was a moment of silence where both of them were too wrapped up in their own thoughts to say anything.

"Can I see it, can I see TARDIS again?" Rose shrugged.

"It's the only lead we have. I might as well look it over again. Do you have time now?" Sara Jane smiled.

"For the Doctor, I make time. Always have always will."

XXX

Rose picked her way through the trees with Sara Jane not far behind her. Mum was working so they'd been spared any awkward explanations but it was all still bizarre. Rose knew Sara Jane but Sara Jane didn't know her and even with her new memories bouncing around in her head the woman somehow still felt like a stranger. She looked back to talk to Sara Jane as she stepped over a log.

"You've very trusting. Someone calls you claiming knowledge about the Doctor. They won't tell you who they are but you meet with them anyway. What if it was some kind of trap or something?" Sara Jane shrugged and pulled her jacket closer around her.

"Well it wasn't. When you travel with the Doctor you encounter much stranger things then mysterious phone messages. Besides, Ive been waiting for news of the Doctor for a very long time. You didn't honestly think I would pass this up, did you?" They both stopped and Sara Jane's face split into a smile. "There it is." Rose's eyes snapped from Sara Jane to the TARDIS. "After all this time."

Before Rose could say anything in return the door to the TARDIS slammed open and a woman stepped out. She had a mess of curly hair and an expression on her face that was all business. Rose noticed a vortex manipulator identical to Jack's on her wrist. That same arm was holding a gun aimed at Rose's head. The woman shook her head.

"Oh Rose Tyler. You with the time vortex stuck in your head I knew you'd be a problem I've been watching you. You've caused me such trouble." Rose raised her hands in a gesture of surrender her eyes never leaving the gun.

"Who are you? How do you know who I am?" The mystery woman smiled, her eyes glinting.

"Oh I didn't introduce 's bad form. I assumed you'd heard of me. I'm Melody Pond but you can call me River Song." She readied the gun. "And you, the remarkable Rose Tyler. I've heard all about you." The smile faded. "The Doctor still cared about you a great deal, that's only going to make this harder for me. I'm sorry Rose but now that you remember you're too dangerous. This had to end. It had to end now." She lowered the gun, just slightly, until it was aimed at Rose's chest.

She fired.

Sara Jane threw herself at Rose and they went rolling out of the way. They barely had time to get to their feet before River was on them again. Sara Jane forced Rose behind her, shielding her, and River growled in frustration.

"Get out of the way."

"No." Sara Jane sounded a little out of breath but determined. "I won't let you heart her she's just a kid."

"I don't want to shoot you but if I have to I will." Rose shook her head.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because I don't have any choice. The Doctor can't exist any longer and if you remember that puts everything we've worked for in jeopardy." A white hot mix of anger and adrenaline shot through her veins.

"The world needs the Doctor."

River fired and Sara Jane crumpled to the ground.

"No!" Rose dropped to her side. "What have you done you've killed her!" River fired another shot and Rose felt pain explode in her chest. She slumped to the ground and everything started to spin. River crouched until they were eye to eye.

"The universe doesn't need the Doctor. It's got me now." Rose tried to hold on, to grasp anything that would keep her awake, but as hard as she fought the darkness just kept pulling her under.

Piece by piece, everything faded.

**_Sorry to leave it on such a cliffhanger! Let me know what you think I'll try and update as soon as possible._**


	5. TIME AND RELATIVE DIMENSIONS IN SPACE

**_Thank you so much to everyone who has alerted favourited and/or reviewed this story it means so much to me! I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to reply to last chapters reviews and that this one took so long to get up (on the other hand I finished the first draft of my novel FINALLY so I am so excited about that and having it in the editing stage should free up some time) but honestly you guys make my life and your continued support is inspiring._**

**_I should probably mention that none of this belongs to me. Just my ideas =) _**

**_alright on with it!_**

When she woke Rose ached all over. Her eyes flicked open and she realized she was in the TARDIS. She tried to get to her feet but she was handcuffed to the console in a way that made it impossible. The rattle of the metal did have another effect though.

It brought River Song.

"Oh good you're awake, I was beginning to think you might have suffered an overdose." Rose shuffled as far back as she could until she was pressed against the TARDIS controls.

"Stay away from me." River song smirked.

"Oh please go on. You are so intimidating."

"Where's Sara Jane?"

"Oh she's fine. She's safe and sound back home. She's not the one who's the problem, you are." River pulled her gun from the holster at her hip and held it up. "Specialty bullets. Not made on earth of course. The outer casing dissolves on impact leaving behind nothing but a micro needle the contents of which effectively knock one out. The serum hurts like hell, but you wake up very much alive. Simple really." Rose blinked a couple of times as her vision swum. "I'm afraid you're still getting over the last of it."

"But I thought you, I thought..." River laughed.

"What? That I wanted to kill you?" She came closer, crouching in front of Rose. "See that's the problem with all of you. You see me as a villain but I'm just doing my job. I'm just doing what the Doctor's friends always do."

"And what's that?" River's expression turned hard.

"As we're told." She straightened out and stepped back a couple of steps. "I assume you've got some questions." Rose snorted.

"You think?"

"Then ask."

"How about you uncuff me first." The metal jingled as she shook her wrist.

"I'm not that stupid, sweetie." Rose rolled her eyes.

"He said you were a psychopath."

"Takes one to know one."

"I'm not a psychopath!"

"No, but he is." Rose glared at her a moment then shifted her weight so she was sitting forward a little more.

"One more thing. How come you remember him and none of us could? He rewrote time you shouldn't even exist!" River smirked.

"Easy. I stayed here and the TARDIS protected my timeline. Kept me from being erased or changed."

"He did that. For you. Why?" River stopped pacing.

"Oh good lord you are slow. Think about it. You saw Donna's parallel universe. You know better then anyone what would happen if the Doctor wasn't there to constantly protect earth. He had to leave, but he couldn't just walk away. Couldn't just undo all the good he'd done. So he needed a replacement. Someone who could travel in time and manage everything he could but more quietly. Without the theatrics and the breaking things and definitely without all the..." She looks Rose up and down. "...pets tagging along."

"Hey! one of those 'pets' was your mother!"

"Yes." River's expression darkened. "And he messed with her life just like he messed with yours, with Donna's and Martha's and Sara Jane's. Countless others." Rose sagged against the controls.

"It's not his fault. It's not like he means to."

"No. But it happens anyway, every time. It's just a fact. The Doctor does a lot of good but he isn't exactly quiet about it, and his crusades have casualties."

"What," Rose's head pounded as she tried to wrap her mind around it all. "So everything I remember the Doctor doing since he met me. All the worlds and people he saved..."

"All me. Well, it will be. There's still a lot to be done." Rose stared at her, hating that she was feeling something like admiration towards the woman who shot and handcuffed her.

"All on your own?"

"I don't know if you've noticed. I don't exactly play well with others." River stepped forward and started fiddling with the controls above Rose's head. She tugged on a large lever and the TARDIS screeched, shaking wildly as it went careening into the time vortex. Rose felt her heart race, though she wasn't sure if it was fear or excitement causing it.

"I must say it's been a long time since I've had travel this smooth. Vortex manipulators aren't exactly first class and man are they a bitch on the skin. A girl's got to stay young you know!"

"Hang on! Where are we going?"

"That's for me to know. I've got some business to take care of." They're in the vortex a moment longer and then there's the tell tale screeching of the TARDIS materializing. River headed for the door and Rose panicked.

"What are you planning to do? You're not just going to leave me here." River turned back to look at her hand already on the door.

"Just watch me."

_**I'm sorry i'm sorry I know it's short and no action please don't hurt me. Next one will be longer and lots of fun stuff promise. Please let me know what you think!**_


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